I know, the crap they get up to, and up in, is phenomenal. I have seen pictures of them climbing up sheer dam faces, cliffs, you name it.
There's an old British military saying that "wherever a goat can go, a man can go, and wherever a man can go he can drag a gun." It makes me wonder how familiar the speaker was with goats. :)
You forgot a solution: find a human with natural immunity to poison ivy, pay them to remove it.
Although personally I'd be fine with letting the goat consume everything in the garden down to the roots, and then eating the goat instead of the vegetables.
It's probably a good thing goats don't spit like llamas or camels. That'd be basically chemical warfare at that point. Can you even imagine getting a face full of half chewed poison ivy leaves, just dripping with the devil oil and llama spit? Ugh. Just end it at that point.
That is a possibility, although it has lots of search costs, actual payment, and the recurring problem that they might miss some, or it might grow back and I have to hire them again. Really, another human is just a slightly more targeted goat. Possibly worse, as a goat won't leave some behind on purpose just to ensure he has more work in the future :)
(Plus, I wasn't kidding about the middle of no where aspect. It would actually be easier to find goats to hire than it would be to find humans.)
Funny that you highlight the weirdness of GOAT and goat having opposite-coded meanings at the same time, and then you also used another example of such a word in footnote 1: "sanction."
In regards to tethering goats to post, a viable option you may not be aware of...
A tip I've noted, as an aspiring goatherd myself, is to place on the rope a PVC pipe (or maybe a length of mostly straight PEX would work too) about 12"-18" down from the goats collar and about 12" from the post or lead spike. Tie stopper knots at each end of the pipe to keep it in place on the rope. The rigidity of the pipe prevents the goat from getting tangled in the rope along the length of it where that is most likely.
Ooh, that is a clever trick! You could also use that to keep the goat away from a circular area by tethering them to the center of it, and using the piping as a standoff. Damnit... I want goats to experiment with now!
Watching the video, I also kept finding myself thinking "let me get a good look at that hook... oh, dude, you need to sharpen that on the inside of the curve!" I should make myself a nice bill hook one of these days :)
yep and you can make the rope as long as you want and just pipe up the few feet near the goat to keep him from tripping. Although that does run the risk of the exposed rope getting tangled on other stuff like roots and shrubs. Either way it should do a lot to minimize the upkeep needed for the tether method of Goat mowing. Has to be simpler than the portable fence enclosure method for the "Houdini of the Beasts."
I know nettles aren’t in the same league but I have a patch that’s kind of on the march. But I’ve been distracted from my plan to pull them up by fascination for the myriad fascinating and bizarre critters that obviously choose nettles as home. There’s a group of weird spiders who look as if their legs are attached through portholes. Only on the fucking nettles. Nettles are the luxury villa of my meadow. Plus, they’re the soul food for peacock butterflies, whose larvae accumulated there 2 months ago too. Sharing space is damned complicated. My nettles remain, for the moment.
How exactly do nettles work? I have read about them, but I am not clear on how they lash out. Is brushing up against them enough for the hairs to break and start injecting you, or do you have to be pushing against them? I wonder if you could put like a chicken wire fence around them to sort of keep their branches from reaching out to give you a caress, but still leave access for butterflies and spiders.
It is amazing how many animals learn to live with nasty ass plants like that. I was reading that strong winds can knock enough of the nettles' hairs off to limit their annoyance to humans, so maybe applying an industrial fan once a week might let you keep the critters and lose the pointy bits? Fortunately that's a trade off I don't have to worry about; nothing likes living in poison ivy in particular, and most animals don't seem affected by it at all.
I love nature and all, but damn... sometimes that mother has an abusive streak.
I know, the crap they get up to, and up in, is phenomenal. I have seen pictures of them climbing up sheer dam faces, cliffs, you name it.
There's an old British military saying that "wherever a goat can go, a man can go, and wherever a man can go he can drag a gun." It makes me wonder how familiar the speaker was with goats. :)
You forgot a solution: find a human with natural immunity to poison ivy, pay them to remove it.
Although personally I'd be fine with letting the goat consume everything in the garden down to the roots, and then eating the goat instead of the vegetables.
It's probably a good thing goats don't spit like llamas or camels. That'd be basically chemical warfare at that point. Can you even imagine getting a face full of half chewed poison ivy leaves, just dripping with the devil oil and llama spit? Ugh. Just end it at that point.
That'd be pretty friggin metal, you have to admit. haha
Assuming that's possible, thank God goats can't read. This would give them ideas for new and exciting ways to level up their goating.
That is a possibility, although it has lots of search costs, actual payment, and the recurring problem that they might miss some, or it might grow back and I have to hire them again. Really, another human is just a slightly more targeted goat. Possibly worse, as a goat won't leave some behind on purpose just to ensure he has more work in the future :)
(Plus, I wasn't kidding about the middle of no where aspect. It would actually be easier to find goats to hire than it would be to find humans.)
Funny that you highlight the weirdness of GOAT and goat having opposite-coded meanings at the same time, and then you also used another example of such a word in footnote 1: "sanction."
I like to cleave to the interesting words. Keeps me feeling sanguine about life.
In regards to tethering goats to post, a viable option you may not be aware of...
A tip I've noted, as an aspiring goatherd myself, is to place on the rope a PVC pipe (or maybe a length of mostly straight PEX would work too) about 12"-18" down from the goats collar and about 12" from the post or lead spike. Tie stopper knots at each end of the pipe to keep it in place on the rope. The rigidity of the pipe prevents the goat from getting tangled in the rope along the length of it where that is most likely.
see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AwutafIbbk
Ooh, that is a clever trick! You could also use that to keep the goat away from a circular area by tethering them to the center of it, and using the piping as a standoff. Damnit... I want goats to experiment with now!
Watching the video, I also kept finding myself thinking "let me get a good look at that hook... oh, dude, you need to sharpen that on the inside of the curve!" I should make myself a nice bill hook one of these days :)
yep and you can make the rope as long as you want and just pipe up the few feet near the goat to keep him from tripping. Although that does run the risk of the exposed rope getting tangled on other stuff like roots and shrubs. Either way it should do a lot to minimize the upkeep needed for the tether method of Goat mowing. Has to be simpler than the portable fence enclosure method for the "Houdini of the Beasts."
I know nettles aren’t in the same league but I have a patch that’s kind of on the march. But I’ve been distracted from my plan to pull them up by fascination for the myriad fascinating and bizarre critters that obviously choose nettles as home. There’s a group of weird spiders who look as if their legs are attached through portholes. Only on the fucking nettles. Nettles are the luxury villa of my meadow. Plus, they’re the soul food for peacock butterflies, whose larvae accumulated there 2 months ago too. Sharing space is damned complicated. My nettles remain, for the moment.
How exactly do nettles work? I have read about them, but I am not clear on how they lash out. Is brushing up against them enough for the hairs to break and start injecting you, or do you have to be pushing against them? I wonder if you could put like a chicken wire fence around them to sort of keep their branches from reaching out to give you a caress, but still leave access for butterflies and spiders.
It is amazing how many animals learn to live with nasty ass plants like that. I was reading that strong winds can knock enough of the nettles' hairs off to limit their annoyance to humans, so maybe applying an industrial fan once a week might let you keep the critters and lose the pointy bits? Fortunately that's a trade off I don't have to worry about; nothing likes living in poison ivy in particular, and most animals don't seem affected by it at all.
I love nature and all, but damn... sometimes that mother has an abusive streak.